Thursday, 22 November 2012

Apricot and Lemon Cookies

I almost lost my cell phone on the day of Deepavali, all because of my crazy desire for "kamarkat"! The car crammed with five of my ever chattering and bubbly nieces, eight of us drove into a remote village in the outskirts of chennai and had a little adventurous tour in this forest area driving past the vast landscape of jasmine bush and cashew farm, sans the jasmine or the cashew!

On our way back, my curiosity to look for kamarkat in a lone shop, near an age old temple that was almost in a dilapidated state, landed me or rather others in trouble. The next minute, the seven of us barged into that tiny shop and everything went berserk. Though kamarkat was not available, ruby red, sugar soaked "Then mittai"was our next choice, followed by roasted groundnuts, groundnut burfi squares, some butter biscuits and finally the crispy, yellow, cylindrical kuzhal appalam, my childhood snack, which I used to put it in each of my fingers before eating them, completed our list and our shopping in that small village.

Shopping done, we pushed off, carrying the small parcels of our goodies, leaving behind my cell phone on the wooden counter. But, even before I realised I had missed my phone( even after 4 - 5hours), the good samaritan of the village shop, promptly called the last person I spoke to and informed to collect it from him. Not knowing that my phone was missing until I was told, we were taken by surprise when he actually called to inform about it. I did get back my gadget, within 24 hours, by the kind effort of some good souls, who took the trouble to retrieve the phone safely, but, I couldn't shake off the thought, whether this was possible only because I had missed it in a village! This virtue is a fine example of the nature of the village people and I guess they will remain so, as long as they don't brush shoulders with the wrong set of people.

Malta lemons, these large, pretty, green lemons have an aromatic citrusy flavour than our regular lemons, the inside looking more like a sweet lime, it renders a fabulous taste to baked goods. These are from my parents garden and when I held them in my hand, inspired by its vibrant colour, the citrus smell and it's lovely tangy taste, my mind was already imagining different recipes to use them. Luckily, I had some apricots and almonds and couldn't think of a better recipe than this gorgeous cookies to start with and their combination with these malta lemon is the highlight of the cookie. These are not the crisp kind, but soft cake like cookies, packed with flavour and I love these fruity, nutty and citrusy cookies.

Method
Combine ground almonds, flour, salt and baking powder.
Beat Butter and powdered sugar until soft.
Add in the hung curd ( curd strained until all the liquid is drained and the remaining thick curd is measured - a metal strainer can be used for this), whip till combined and creamy.
Add in the lemon zest, vanilla and stir to mix.
Add in the flour mixture and stir to combine.
Add in the chopped apricots and lemon juice and stir.

Drop a tbsp of the dough onto a baking sheet, lined with baking paper and lightly sprayed or greased.
Leave enough space between the cookies to spread when baked.
Bake the cookies in a preheated oven at 180*c for 12 minutes or until the bottom of the cookies begin to change to golden brown.
Let it remain in the heat of the oven for a couple of minutes, remove from oven and leave it cool( The cookies will be very soft at this stage), when cooled it will harden up a little.
Chill the remaining dough until the first batch of cookies are done.

Note:
The cookies will be very soft almost like a cake and tastes like one too.
You can add a couple of tbsp of ground almonds or flour for a denser cookie if desired.

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Tell me what you think Hiya all, Finally on this day of october the 1st, 2012, I have decided to include the comment form, after a long gap of two years. But, I am going to be a bit selfish here and keep all those nice and lovely things that is said for me and only me to cherish and will be sharing any queries that requires clarifications and your experience about the food if you have tried my recipes. So, drop in a word if you have anything to say and thanks a lot for stopping by. "Have a nice day"